However share of results of associates and joint ventures came in at $515.4 million compared to $551.5 million a year ago.
The group also reported an exceptional loss of $18 million -- mostly from staff restructuring costs of $19 million -- compared to $1 million from a year ago.
In Singapore, revenue rose 2% as growth in data usage, home services and equipment sales offset declines in voice and roaming services.
In Australia, revenue increased 6% with growth across mobile and fixed services. EBITDA rose 3% as customer growth offset higher content cost and credits from device repayment plans.
Group Enterprise revenue was up 1% as growth in ICT services partially offset the decline in traditional carriage services but EBITDA dipped 1% as a result of lower contributions from carriage services and continued investments in ICT and cyber security capabilities.
Group Digital Life’s revenue jumped 91%, driven by Amobee’s performance in social and media advertising, and first-time revenue contribution from Turn, a global technology platform for marketers and agencies, which was acquired by Amobee in April 2017. Overall EBITDA improved despite higher content investments at HOOQ.
In July, NetLink NBN Trust was successfully listed, raising proceeds of $2.3 billion. A net gain of $2 billion from this divestment will be recorded in 2Q.
Chua Sock Koong, Singtel Group CEO, says, “We’ve had a good start to the year with a more challenging business environment. This speaks to the resilience of our core consumer business and the investments we’ve made in the digital space in our efforts to grow new businesses. We are encouraged by their performance as they scale up to capture the opportunities in the new economy.”
Looking ahead, Singtel will deploy 800Mbps LTE mobile speeds at selected high-traffic locations across the country by the end of August.
In Australia, Optus is investing A$1 billion in its mobile network over the next year to enhance capacity and 4G coverage by another 500 sites in regional Australia. Its 4G network now covers 96.4% of the population.
No dividends have been recommended for the current quarter.
Shares of Singtel closed 1 cent lower at $3.76 on Thursday.
